1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to explosive tools and more particularly to a modular system of explosive tools that condenses the capabilities available from multiple explosives and explosive tools into one standard module.
2. Background
The US Army's special operations forces have performed demolition operations dating back to pre-World War II using bulk explosives and non-standard, improvised methods. Soldiers have used materials found in the field such as junk yard scrap, glass champagne bottle bottoms and steel plates and molded the explosive to them in an attempt to increase the efficiency of the charges for specialized missions. Since the advent of munitions incorporating explosively formed penetrators/projectiles (EFPs) as warheads, the special operations forces have learned to build demolition charges using this technology. Often times, through trial and error, the mission succeeded using the improvised demolition charges to neutralize the target. However, improvised EFPs are rarely optimized nor do they have consistent and reliable performance because of the variability in materials and building techniques employed.
To overcome some of these deficiencies, demolition kits have been developed for the Navy's Seals and the Army's Special Operations Forces soldiers. Typically, a kit has included a collection of inert metal and plastic parts and commercially available items that give soldiers a wide selection of warheads and attachment devices which can tailored to neutralize a specific target. Many kits have various warheads, at least three sizes of conical shaped charges, four sizes of linear shaped charges, where the relative dimensions stay about the same, the size is just increased. As the kits have evolved to have greater capabilities, so has the weight. The warheads that are provided have a pre-set configuration that contains all materials, except the explosive. The explosive still has to be packed into the warheads. Currently, the demolition kit also has inert components to tailor-make various explosive charges and devices to attach or aim these charges at the target.
Near the mission jump-off site, the user will select the proper sized warheads and hand pack the warheads with Composition C-4 moldable explosive. The armed warheads are manually carried in a backpack to the target site.